AB de Villiers names two bowlers who never backed down vs him, explains how Shane Warne exposed his technique

Talking on the JioCinema show ‘Home of Heroes’, De Villiers said that India and Mumbai Indians (MI) pacer Jasprit Bumrah, and Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan would never back down against him and find ways to hit back despite being taken for cleaners.

“As I got older but more experienced, there came new challenges of bowlers like Bumrah was always very challenging because he was so competitive, he would never back down, is always in your face so I’ve got a lot of respect for him and the way he plays his cricket. I got a hold of him even a few times,” de Villiers told JioCinema.

“He came back at me and got a hold of me a few times and I love that competitiveness. Rashid Khan, tough to pick at night once again. Got him a few times and he would always come back. Always in your face. He hit him with three sixes, as he was trying to get me out the next ball. And those are the kind of bowlers I always found difficult to face and always had a lot of respect for,” he added.

The 39-year-old also confessed that Shane Warne was the toughest and the smartest bowler he faced in his career. He explained how Warne found the chink in his armour and exposed his weakness against playing straight deliveries. He said the weakness exposed by Warne persisted for three straight years and he had to work on his technique.

“Oh, I think Shane Warne in 2006 the first time I travelled to Australia, not so much because of skill and technique and also just the presence of the man and the aura he carried. And obviously I was quite inexperienced. I knew from the get-go he was going to get out. When I faced, the first ball went like, it’s nothing to this,” de Villiers said.

“I mean, it’s pretty simple. But when I looked up, he was looking at me like, what now? And Gilly was talking about my bat lift beyond the stumps. And it was just I got 60.

“That game felt easy, but he was just a smart, incredible player, and it worked out pretty quickly. That’s my technique. It’s not quite spot on when it comes to playing straight. So, he was really going slow, slow, slider straight. And I missed the straight one and not long after that, that was my weakness for 2005, 06 and 07 I would miss straight balls, especially angling a bit back. I would fall over, touch with my head.

“My back lift was a little bit beyond my back and. And I had to pay the juice. I mean I had to go back to the drawing board to figure out my technique, but he was a man who could figure out little things like that and understand there’s something not right with this guy’s bat lift. Let’s go straight and just sided it in there and ultimately I missed one,” he added.